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Blog Watch: AV Club

All you Audio/Video guys out there might want to take a look at this blog.  AVClub is hosted by Ken Wilson, Technology Director of New Spring Community Church. Be sure to check out the video section for a taste of the sermon bumps they create for their sermon series.  Cool stuff fer sure!

Check out the AV Club here!

What's your theological worldview?

Here's an interesting survey from QuizFarm.com.  What's your theological worldview?.  Apparently Addie (my wife) and I are both Fundamentalists according to this survey.  Here's what my score was:

• Fundamentalist - 100%
• Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan - 79%
• Emergent/Postmodern - 57%
• Reformed Evangelical - 54%
• Neo orthodox - 50%
• Charismatic/Pentecostal - 43%
• Classical Liberal - 39%
• Roman Catholic - 7%
• Modern Liberal - 4%

I think the thing that pushed me to the fundamentalist category were my answers that the Bible is actually God's word and it is truth.  Wow!  I would probably never put myself in the same category as Jerry Falwell, but I guess I should go buy a suit.  Look out Grace Church, our worship is gonna change!

Take the quiz here.  So what's your worldview?

IPOD Noise

Where my clickwheel is landing...

INXS/Shine Like it Does: The recent Rock Star: INXS show on CBS has caused me to land on this anthology double disc set packed with obscure songs and top 10's.  I remember seeing INXS live in 1988 at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, MO.  I was 14 years old that summer making it impossible to drive there on my own.  However, having a mom who wanted to take me made her the coolest mom in the world!  I didn't even think it was very embarrassing at the time.  The music was loud, the energy was incredible and the music was shaking the place.  I knew after that show, I HAD to entertain people with music. 

INXS was the start of my music enjoyment.  They ushered me from adolescence into my teenage awkward years with songs like Devil Inside, New Sensation, Kick, Listen Like Theives and on and on.  Many a night was spent lipsyncing these songs in front of a mirror jumping and performing for an audience of thousands.  Ahhh...good times.

If you want a taste of nostalgia and enjoy the music of INXS, I would recommend Shine Like It Does.  The music is great but the insert also gives a glimpse of the band's history and the current members open up a bit about the tragic suicide of the lead singer Michael Hutchence. 

Jeff Deyo/Light: Sonic Flood was the instigator of the whole rocking Christian movement of the current age.  They blasted onto the scene covering popular worship songs giving them an edginess and energy that no other christian band had done as effectively before.  Jeff Deyo was the vocalist that belted out the tunes during the first couple of Sonic Flood albums.

On Jeff's second solo project, Light, he brings an incredible mix of music using rock guitars, synthesizers and lyrics that are worshipful and inspiring.  I've read articles and interviews with Jeff and he has a genuine desire to help train worship leaders to reach the church with a real worship life.

The first song, Light, opens up the disc with incredible energy.  I think I've heard the intro to this song on video commercials at Fellowship Church when I visited there back in January.  Just great music!  Get it and rock out!

Choosing Worship Songs: Horizontal or Vertical

A friend of mine recommended I blog on what I think makes a good worship song. Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting some thoughts under "Choosing Worship Songs".

Well, let me start off by saying I am NO expert on this subject by any means.  But I love to read experts and use their ideas enhancing them for the use of the Grace worship services. 

Often I have folks suggest songs for our worship services here at Grace.  Sometimes they make the list and other times they don't.  My hestiation in sharing this info is that people might make the assumption that the worship song idea they have won't make the cut based on the criteria.  I LOVE having people recommend songs!  I like to hear when people get excited about a song that caused them to take pause in their busy life and reflect on God. So don't judge your recommendations, don't hold them back...please!

Horizontal or Vertical?

Does the song cause the singer to sing about God or to God?  There are many inspiring songs that speak of the wonderful works, nature or truth of God, however they aren't being directly sung to God.  These songs are horizontal in nature. 

Some great worship song examples that I consider horizontal are: Amazing Grace, Standing on the Promises, In Christ Alone and How Great is Our God.  If you read the lyrics of these songs you will find that there are no phrases that indicate it's being sung to God but about God.  They all tell great truths that teach us aspects about the nature of our great God.

Some great worship song examples that I consider vertical are: Here I am to Worship, You Are My King, How Great Thou Art and Heart of Worship.  Even in the titles you can see the direction these songs might take a singer. 

When you listen to worship music, see if you can classify it as vertical or horizontal.  Think of it in terms of "in Spirit and in Truth".  Is the song proclaiming truth?  Or is the song directly sung to the Lord in Spirit?

Now that these two types of songs have been identified, the next step is figuring out what to use on Sunday!  And that depends greatly upon the needs of the church, the direction of the pastor/teacher and the particular message that Sunday.  I'll get into that on another post.

Recomended link: leadworship.com

View From the Stage: Christmas on Sunday!

July doesn't quite seem like the right time to start thinking about Christmas, but it's going to be coming very quickly.  Here's this years dilemma: Christmas is on a Sunday.

Now, some may say, "What's the dilemma?  Christmas should always be on Sunday!".  Well, try telling that to my family!  There are traditions within families that you just DON"T break.  And the  biggest tradition in our family is to gather Christmas morning, open gifts, eat a big breakfast and spend time together.  Now if we have church on Sunday, December 25, we will have to break that tradition. Don't get me wrong, I know life will be fine if we skip this tradition for one year, but I know if it's an issue for my family, then it has to be an issue for many others. 

The other aspect to consider is how to reach the surrounding community.  Christmas is one of THE biggest days of the year for unchurched folks to attend a church.  I wonder if those unchurched folks would feel compelled to get up early Christmas morning, disregarding their yearly traditions, in order to come sit at a church for an hour to hear a stranger tell them about the birth of Christ and to hear a praise team that will probably be missing a few of it's key members due to the holiday. This is the dilemma.

So here's what I'm wondering...

• Should we use Sunday, December 25 as our big outreach day?  Or should we consider using the Sunday before as our Christmas service?
• Should we actually...take a deep breath...cancel our weekend service on December 25?
• If in the event we chose to cancel Sunday, December 25, should we explore the idea of having a Friday night Christmas service on December 23?
• Should we consider a Christmas eve service?

Anybody out there thought about this yet?  If so and your church has a solution, please drop a comment and let me know what your church is considering.  I'd also like feedback from you Gracers out there.  Thanks!

Oh yeah, and I haven't even mentioned that New Year's day is the following Sunday!

View From the Stage: Summer Breakout Sunday

This past week was the Grace Church version of VBS (Vacation Bible School) called Summer Breakout (SBO).  The theme was "Extreme Makeover: Life Edition".  I have to give kudos and thanks to all who ministered this week to the children of Grace and the community.  Thanks to all of you for ministering to my daughter Maelee. 

This Sunday we had all of the kids join the band onstage to sing a few songs.  I couldn't believe we actually squeezed roughly 120-130 kids onstage with us.  And they were excellent to boot!  This is truly the GREATEST outreach opportunity during the summer months. 

We saw 6 confirmed salvations from kids this week.  That's more than we've had over the past 7 years combined!  KC Wolf came and shared his testimony.  It was quite shocking to see him take the head off to reveal a skinny white guy! He did a great job talking to the kids about his faith.

To Pastor Brian Gann and all who worked so hard this week, thank you from my family.  It's all Maelee has been talking about this weekend.  You are amazing people! I'm so grateful that we have such an awesome children's ministry.  I don't think many churches in this area have such dedicated people.

Keyser Cut Capo

For generations, guitar players have been looking for the perfect way to play nice ringing chords without breaking fingers. Some have even tried the vice capo which is a little difficult to play with. When I would listen to worship, I found myself mystified and some of the chord sounds they would use.  Until I found the secret tool...

I've been using this nifty little invention now for about 15 months.  And I LOVE it!  The Keyser Cut Capo was featured on worshiptogether.com and I decided to try it out.  It really opened up a whole new dimension to my playing.  I must admit that I feel guilty for using it sometimes.  It makes guitar playing so easy that I feel like I'm cheating.  But then I hear the nice full sounds and that feeling quickly departs.

If you play acoustic guitar and lead worship in small group settings, this is an amazing tool.  It gives you the ability to play some of those bass notes in the chords when you don't have a bass player with you.  Chords like the E/G#, the F#m7 and the C#m7 sound great with this capo. If you're feeling bold, you can slap on a regular keyser capo and then slap the cut on raising the key and giving that same full sound.  I've done that from time to time.

For songwriters, you'll find this may be the perfect tool to reenergize that creative slump.  You can purchase the Keyser Cut Capo at worshiptogether.com. Songs that sound great with this capo: We Fall Down, Here I Am to Worship, You Are My King and pretty much anything in the key of E.  Get one and try it out!

Two Blog Recommendations

I am loving the leadership blogs. "It's About the Journey" and "brucedjohnson" have been hitting my browser quite a bit.  Check them out!

It's About the Journey

brucedjohnson

Amazing Musician: Raul Midon

I just saw the most amazing guitar player and singer I've ever seen!  On public television Raul Midon, a blind musician, sang and played guitar.  I don't know much about him, but I'm going to check out his music.  AMAZING!!!

Raul Midon website.